Final Stats Box Score and Play-by-Play

CONWAY, Ark. - Three different Colonels scored in double figures on Wednesday night.  Senior forward Anatoly Bose poured in 21 and tied a career high with 14 rebounds for his second double-double of the year.  Redshirt freshman Bryan Hammond recorded a career high 17 points, and true freshman Dantrell Thomas added 15 to help lead the Nicholls State University men's basketball team (13-11, 7-6 Southland Conference) to a 70-48 win at Central Arkansas (5-21, 1-12 Southland Conference) on Wednesday night.

The win completes a season sweep of the Bears by the Colonels (Nicholls claimed a 70-51 win over UCA when the Bears visited Stopher Gym on Jan. 19), and marks the second time this season Nicholls has held an opponent under 50 points (Nicholls held Loyola-New Orleans to 41 points on Dec. 3, 2010). 

In the middle of the closest conference race in NCAA Division I basketball, the Nicholls victory puts the Colonels in a four-way tie for fifth place overall in the league standings.  With just three regular season games left, the top ten teams in the Southland Conference are separated by just 3.0 games.

Texas State and McNeese State, which both won on Wendesday night, are tied for the No. 1 overall spot with 9-4 league records.  They are followed by Northwestern State and Stephen F. Austin who are tied for third with 8-5 league marks.  Nicholls is now tied with Texas-Arlington, Sam Houston State and Texas-Arlington for fifth place.  By cirtue of the league's tiebreaker scenarios, if the season ended tonight, the Colonels would own the sixth of eight seeds to the 2011 Southland Conference Tournament.

The Colonels jumped out to a fast start, opening the game with a 24-6 run.  Hammond, who capped the run with a layup at the 9:21 mark, tallied eight of his 17 points on the Colonels' opening surge.  Central Arkansas never got closer than ten the rest of the way as Nicholls took a 32-18 lead into the break at halftime.

Nicholls continued to pull away in the second half as the Colonels pushed their lead to 24, their largest of the night when Thomas sank a layup to make it 57-33 with 7:18 left.  UCA never got closer than 19 points the rest of the way as Nicholls cruised to a 70-48 victory.

The Colonels will return to action on Saturday when they visit McNeese State as part of a men's and women's basketball double header.  Following their tilt with the first place Cowboys, the Colonels will return to Thibodaux on Wendesday March 2 for their 2011 home court finale against in-state rival Northwestern State.